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Field Guide  ·  First Edition  ·  2026

Clearanceto Wealth

How to break into defense contracting, earn a security clearance, and build real wealth in Tech. Starting from wherever you are standing right now.

Get the guide See what is inside $27 founding price  $47
Cover of Clearance to Wealth
68 pp  /  16 ch
The situation

Nobody tells you this career exists

I worked retail for eleven dollars an hour. I was not lazy and I was not stupid. I simply had no idea that there was an entire industry paying six figures to people with one certification and a background check, because nobody in my life knew it either.

The average cleared technology professional in the United States earns $126,125. Roughly double the national median. Overseas, the same work regularly clears $200,000 with housing, food, and transportation paid for and most of the federal tax removed.

That is not a pitch. It is published compensation data, and it is cited in the guide so you can check it yourself.

Chapter 9  ·  The math

It is not what you make

Here is one offer taken all the way to the bottom line. A systems role in South Korea, single filer, domiciled in a state with no income tax.

Overseas
$160,000
Federal income tax$0
State income tax$0
FICA$12,240
Housing, food, transportcovered
Yours to keep$147,760
=
The same life, at home
$272,000
Federal income tax$50,190
State income tax$12,375
FICA$16,031
Housing, food, transport$45,840
Left at year end$147,564

Both columns land on the same number. A $160,000 offer overseas leaves you exactly what a $272,000 salary leaves you at home.
Figures use 2026 federal brackets, the $132,900 foreign earned income exclusion, and a maxed traditional 401k. Illustrative, and fully shown in the guide.

Contents

Sixteen chapters, start to finish

Three sections. Getting in, where the money is, and how to keep it. No filler, no motivational padding, and nothing else to buy at the end.

01
The OpportunityWhat the work actually pays, and why
02
Two Ways InMilitary route and civilian route, side by side
03
The ClearanceSF-86, what disqualifies you, timelines
04
The Certification StackWhat to study, in what order, what it costs
05
Finding The JobSearch phrases and the recruiter method
06
The ResumeA full scrubbed example you can copy
07
The InterviewBoth stages, and what to ask them
08
Building A Career StatesideYou never have to leave the country
09
How Overseas Pay WorksDifferentials, hardship, danger, per diem
10
Where The Jobs ArePay bands by country
11
Life OverseasThe honest version, including the costs
12
Case StudyE-4 to $200,000 in twelve months
13
Two More PeopleEighteen with no plan, and thirty five with a mortgage
14
It Is Not What You MakeDomicile, FEIE, and the day count
15
Assets, Not LiabilitiesWhere the money actually goes
16
Your Exit StrategyKnowing what this is all for
Qualification

Read this part before you buy

I would rather lose the sale than waste your money.

This is for you if

  • You are a U.S. citizen
  • You are willing to study something boring for a few months
  • You can get along with people in close quarters
  • You are open to relocating if you need to
  • You are in IT already, or willing to start at the bottom of it
  • You want the money to build something specific

This is not for you if

  • You are not a U.S. citizen. There is no workaround
  • You use drugs, including in states where it is legal
  • You have a felony record
  • You want passive income or a shortcut
  • You are unwilling to sit an exam
  • You expect this to work in under six months
Who wrote this

I did the whole path

Army veteran
Cleared tech, active
CISSP · CASP · CCNP
Security+ · CCNA
B.S. Information Technology
30+ countries

I enlisted at nineteen straight out of that retail job. I have worked in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Europe, with a rotation in Hawaii and a stint in Virginia. Systems and network engineering. I have earned six figures every year since I was twenty one.

I am not a coach who read about this industry. I am inside it, right now, doing the work this guide describes. Everything in here is either something I did myself or something I watched happen to someone standing next to me.

If I had found this path at eighteen instead of stumbling into it years later, the difference would have been measured in years of my life and hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is the entire reason the guide exists.

Get the guide

One certification away

Founding price · First 100 readers
$27 $47
One payment. Instant download. Yours permanently.
  • 68 pages, 16 chapters, PDF
  • A complete scrubbed cleared resume to work from
  • Pay bands for ten overseas locations
  • The full tax and domicile chapter
  • Every figure cited to a primary source
  • Free updates to future editions
Buy the guide, $27

Thirty day refund, no questions and no forms. If the first three chapters do not change how you think about your career, email me and I will send the money back.

Not ready

Take the calculator instead

Free. Enter a salary and a location and it shows you what the offer is actually worth after the exclusion, the domicile, and the covered expenses. No purchase, no upsell.

Questions

The ones I get most

Do I need to be in the military?

No. Chapter 2 covers both routes in detail. The military path is faster because the government sponsors and pays for your clearance, but the civilian path works and it is the one most readers take. It adds roughly twelve to eighteen months.

Do I have to work overseas?

No, and I am emphatic about this. Cleared technology jobs exist in all fifty states, and the average cleared professional at home earns roughly double the national median. Chapter 8 is written entirely for people who want the domestic version. Overseas is an accelerator, not a requirement.

I have no IT experience at all. Is this useless to me?

It is written for you. Security+ requires no prior technical experience and is designed to be someone's first certification. The guide starts from zero and includes the free study resources I would use if I were starting today.

I am thirty five with a mortgage and kids. Too late?

Chapter 13 is a case study of exactly that person. He studied after the kids went to bed, took a help desk job for eighteen months, and had his house paid off four years later. Clearance eligibility does not consider age.

Is this just information I could find free on Reddit?

Some of it, scattered across five years of threads and mixed in with a lot of confidently wrong advice. What you cannot find assembled anywhere is the sequence, the tax and domicile chapter, a full scrubbed cleared resume, and pay bands by country with sources attached. That is what you are paying for.

What if I buy it and it is not for me?

Email me within thirty days and I will refund it. No form, no explanation required. I would rather have your goodwill than $27.

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